Although I’m not a big cake eater(I’ll take pie over cake and ice cream over them both)I love to bake them.

Given my tepid feelings towards cake consumptionI consistently have a problem with what to do with cakes once I make them.

The thought of having too much cake on handand then it going to waste is what normally stops me from bakingbut I put that concern aside for a little bit earlier this month.

Inspired by the new bookI took an evening to lounge around in bed and page through my new treasure.The dogs kept me company as I looked through itpassing by the chocolate chocolate chocolate cakesand then suddently staring at a photo of a beautiful four layer cake called Woody’s Lemon Luxury Layer Cake.

While I like milk/dark chocolateI never really crave it. I do crave lemony things, however.

That yellow cirtus has my heart for sure.Have you ever seen a piece of fruit look so happy? It’s BRIGHT YELLOW! It FITS IN YOUR HAND! You can cook/bake/clean with it! It’s MULTIPURPOSE!

I go through a lot of lemons and need to plant a lemon tree already.

Now that you know my feelings on lemonsyou could understand why I would be drawn to a recipe calling for zest in the sponge, curd to fill, and curd in the white chocolate frosting.

Sponge set up

Zest bomb

Out of the oven

Pulling away from the pansas it should after a few minutes

I left it to cool and started on the curd.

I would have photos of the curd in progressbut the first batch turned out poorlyand it was because I followed directions.

PSA: Don’t make anything that is lemon-based in a stainless steel/metal container.Just don’t.

I don’t care what the recipe says.Use a glass bowl and wooden utensils and I promise you your lemon whatever won’t taste like it passed through water fountain pipes.

Cause that’s what happens in a stainless steel pot.

PlusIgoofeduponanotherthingbut we don’t need to talk about it.

(Don’t forget to add the eggs when making your curd.You can’t just add them in at the end.Yeah. I did you a favor and learned for you.)

So I made another batch and then set everything aside to cool overnight.

The next day I made the buttercream.

It had a fair amount of white chocolate

Melted

Back to the stove with some butter, eggsand vanilla

The frosting base had to cool too(notice the name of the cake did not say “Woody’s Quick Lemon Luxury Layer Cake)but after cooling I whipped in some butter

then the some of the lemon curd

and ended with a whole boatload of amazing buttercream.

I put that aside and went back to working on the cake layers.

Cooled and torted

Simple syrup to keep them moist (helpful since they were already a day old)

Curd in between

I sigh a happy sigh.It looks like sunshine.Who wouldn’t want to eat sunshine…that tastes like lemons (and not of fire)?

Whoever doesn’t want towell, I’ll have their piece of sunshine then.

Buttercream on top and in between the sandwiched layers

Crumb coat

I know some bakers don’t do a crumb coatbut I swear by them.

True to its namethis is the coat that captures all the crumbs in your frosting that way they don’t end up marring the surface of your pretty cake.

After I applied the crumb coatI put the cake in the refrigerator to set up a little bitso as to make the final frosting layer nice and smooth.

That was the goal at least.

Perfectly smooth buttercream frosting on a cake is one of the hardest thing for me to do.Possibly harder than Pie Crust.If I ever met Crust and Buttercream in a dark alley at nightI would run awayscreaming in terror.

Buttercream won the battle this time.

It also seems I was so enraged at losing the Battle of Smooththat I could not take a decent picture of the finished product.

It was a night of failuresbecause I also added some yellow food coloring to the icingand it turned splotchy from lazy mixing.

Thats what you get.Bad lightingsubject cut offand the equivalent of cow spots on the cake.

You’re just going to have to like itor not like it.Whatever you want.

It wasn’t winning any beauty pageantsbut hot damn it was good.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to try to get a nice slice of cake for a photographit looks a little like this

I quit after three slices.

The insides

You can see the buttercream filling is a little bit cracked.

After I finished frosting the cake I put it in the refrigerator to set up again.When I took it out I didn’t wait until it had warmed up all the way through to slice itso it cracked a little.

My problem with having too much cake was taken care of when I tweeted that I had a lot of cake and no one to eat it.

Summons were issuedand the cake went a’traveling to a little ol’ Houston bar.

I still came home with a few slicesbut it was better than having the behemoth sit in my fridge for a week or two.

This cake was not the only cake to come into my life this month.

I made an angel food cake too.

Good ol’ Woody liked a lot of egg yolks in his cake so I had about fifteen whites in a big bowl in my fridge.

You can see theres a few spots where the flour didn’t incorporate well.It was still pretty fluffy and lightand since it was my first angel food cakeI’m not going to beat myself up over it.

and of coursefor those who couldn’t attend the classthere were plenty of people live-tweeting it

This isnt even a full round up of all the cakes I’ve seen this month.October is also not over and of courseI have a few more cakes planned.

I will practice again with a cake with a buttercream frostingtrying to attain perfect smoothness with a non-crusting frostingand probably get frustrated with it then stalk off to do something where I am not involved with preparationlike eat tacos.

Thankfully that respite won’t be too far out of reach this weekend.I have giant plans involving taco trucks this Sunday.

To maximize the taco-rest opportunityI should start the cake on Saturdaygo to bed pissed off at the cake that nightwake up to eat tacosthen come back blissed out and issue a beat down on the buttercream.

Note: I recommend a lighter olive oil. Lucini is great and doesn’t PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE with olive oil flavor. Depending on what olive oil you use, the flavor be overpowering, so stick with one that is on the buttery side.

Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Chop up all ingredients (peel cucumbers, remove seeds and top of bell pepper, tomatoes can be cored, but leave the skins).

2. Throw everything but the salt and oil into a blender.

3. Turn on the blender and blend until smooth. Take a taste and see if you need more vinegar. The sweetness of the tomatoes will vary from batch to batch. Add some more vinegar to balance out everything if necessary.

4. Add the olive oil and salt and reblend.

5. Strain mixture through fine mesh strainer. Your mixture should be smooth with a lot of body.

6. Chill. I like mine very cold.

I like to serve the soup with grilled toast brushed with olive oil.

Andres has an elaborate garnish component in the bookbut I rarely prepare it.

Husband and I nibbled (sipped?)on the gazpacho all Saturdayand by Sunday I was still self-quarantinedbut could not hold myself back from cooking a full meal for any longer.

At first I thought it was silly‘of course I would just eat leftovers’and then I got to thinkingand in reality I usually don’t eat leftovers when I eat alone.

My favorite meal for one is chicken and rice.Not chicken and rice with garlic, spices, and a saladbut a chicken breast roasted with seasoned salt and freshly cracked pepperwith some chicken broth added in during the last half of roastingthen when it’s readythe chicken gets shredded and unceremoniously dumped over steaming white rice with the broth.

That’s my meal for just me.

I find myself eating cereal a lot tooor just Triscuits and cheese.

This week I’ve had cereal two days in a row.The first time it was because Hub was on call and I didn’t feel like cookingand the second time was because I just used up all my energy trying to work out an argument.

I felt that if I cooked anything it might end up with only the hottest spices in the housetopped off with a splash of HATRED and ANGER.

So cornflakes and whole milk it was.It seemed safer that way.

Last night I did start making watermelon sorbet thoughand will finish it tonight.

I can’t promise there won’t be cayenne in itbut it actually might be better that way.

I’ve done some heavy duty cooking this weekand this weekend will be much of the same.

I made macarons for the first time last weekthanks to a recipe from this guy.

They turned out beautifullyand they are slated to be made this weekend againbecause Hub and I ate every last one of them the same day they were made.

Playing around with fillings will be the project this time aroundI have a few Rose Levy Beranbaum recipes lined upNutella in the pantryand home-made jam in the fridge.

The jam was a gift from a coworkerbecause, sadly, I have not yet marched into preserving territory.I do have a book on itbut the fear of inadvertently poisoning myself and Hub has not yet dissipated so fun and games with with berries, cucumbers, tomatoes, chiles…(you get the picture)will have to wait.

Also on the list for this weekend is finding what to do with the rest of the watermelon I have.

Our CSA delivered it to us right before July 4thand half of it went into the sorbet.

The other half is sitting in my fridgelaughing at me.

It’s been quite meloney at our house lately.

We got cantaloupe in our CSA delivery this week and I think that is going to go with some cured ham of some sortsince I’ve actually never paired it with that.

My favorite way to eat it is with super cold cottage cheese(why yes, that has been an alone meal)but I’m trying to branch out here.

I might as well get through the tried and true combosthat way when I want to get WILD AND CRAZYI’ll have some sort of foundation on which to build.

That has been my mission lately:to try out the classics.

I feel like I read about them so muchand see how people play with thembut when I get to thinking about itI realize how much I haven’t triedand that’s simply unacceptable.

Lately my weekends have turned into project-cooking-timeand the projects recently have been classic recipes and pairings.

Seeing as that has resulted in things like macarons, stuffed squash blossoms, and progressively better stockI think I shall continue the trend.

Sunday: Prime New York Strip Steak with Creamed Spinach and Potato Gratin Monday: Braised Oxtails over PolentaTuesday: Roast Chicken with Mashed Carrots, Roasted Brussel Sprouts and Garden Salads (sometimes I like to do a big meal in the middle of the week for no reason)Wednesday: Chicken Salad Croissant Sandwiches with pickles and potato chips (easy peasy)Thursday: Friend’s birthday dinner!Friday: Veg. leftoversSaturday: Lentil Soup with Cornbread

Still no idea what the Easter meal is looking like.

Husband will be on call at the hospital all night on Saturdayso he will be a useless lump sleeping in bed on Easter Sunday.

Between two jobs, two blogs, two dogs, and one husband, I just don’t get around here enough.

I’ve started Twitteringalong with the rest of the worldand have been trying to document what I make for dinner ever day.

I would do lunch toobut taking a picture of a Lean Cuisine every day would be a little depressing.

So insteadI take bad iPhone pictures of my dinnernone of which want to post to my entryso I’m going to stop trying.

Last night dinner involved white ricesomething I try to eat in moderationbut I’m ashamed to admit that dinner tonight also involved white rice.

BUT there are no photographs, not even on Twitterso we can all pretend like it never happened.

It was red beans and rice with tomatoes and balsamic vinegar if you’re wondering.Complete white trash cookingbut delicious.

Brown up some 80/20 ground chuckseason with garlic and good ol’ Lawry’s seasoned saltdump in a can of red beans with a little bit of waterlet reduce for a few minutesand spoon over white rice.

Top with sliced tomatoes and balsamic vinegar and then go sit out on your front lawn with a wife beater on.

Tasty as it isI think it could be better.

I was thinking about the tomatoes todayand how they are my favorite part of the dish.Right nowtomatoes obviously are not at their peakbut perhaps I could elevate this dish to a slightly higher socioeconomic status by making a tomato confit and a reducing the balsamic vinegar down to a glaze.

Then maybe replace the ground beef with braised beef (oxtails, perhaps? I like this dish a little bit on the fattier side since it tastes like sawdust if a low fat cut of meat is used) and use long simmered red beans instead of my salted friends out of a can.

Ideas, ideas.I probably will just stick to my regular recipe until I finally get so ashamed of it I’m forced into making something better.This probably won’t happen for a while.

I already have a go-to pizza recipeso I was not too thrilled about thisespecially since I was hoping for a sweet challengebut I gave it a go.

Maybe my go wasn’t good enoughbecause while everyone else who made this recipe raved about itI was not impressed.

I’m pretty sure I have only myself to blameand I’m sure I will try this recipe againbecause I do like thin crust pizza.

Mine was just TOO thinand didn’t crisp up in the middle.

I got busy baking before I started taking picturesso no mise en place for you.

Also it was dark outsideand the lighting in my tiny kitchen is pretty badso the pictures are what they are.
SIGH.

On with the show.

Dough in the mixer:

Properly pulled away from the sidesand still attached to the bottomper the instructions:

Blob ready for splitting:

Asexual reproduction, RIGHT ON MY COUNTERTOP:

I put them in the fridge for an overnight riseand the next day Husband took them out and flattened two for me for dinner that night(maybe I can blame the less than impressive pizza’s on his hand in the whole thing…)

The rested there for two hoursand then it was time to stretch them out.We were supposed to toss thembut that was not happening with this dough.

Instead I carefully stretched itand no matter how hard I triedit still had holes

I pinched them shutand no one was the wiserexcept for all you people on the internet now.

We’re old fashioned here in our householdso it was just reg’lar pepperoni pizzas

I shredded ball mozzarella on top of the saucefor which I used a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated.

(Note to self: try to find pepperoni without so much dye in it. Probably not good for the health to eat this much red dye.)

I previously cranked up my oven to 550F(or so I THOUGHT!)and my pizza stone had been in there for at least half an hour too.

After about 8 minutes in the ovenTHIS emerged

The outer crust was greatit was just too thin in the middlewith no crunch.

I think next time I will just have to make them thicker in the middle.

Pizza No. 2 came out the same way as the firstso for kicks I threw my oven thermometer in the oven to see if it was really reaching 550F.

The answer was HELL NO.It was only about 450Fso this probably did not help my uncripsy pizza.

The moisture content from the ball mozzarella probably didn’t help either.

AgainI think the unsuccess of these pizzas rests entirely on my shouldersand not on the recipe itself.

I’ll be revisiting it againwith a lower moisture content cheesethicker crustsand aiming for a much hotter oven temperature.

Goodness knows the recipe made four other balls of pizzaso I’ve got enough practice dough to last me a while.